Cycling UK Forum

Actually Ivor I see it from the other side, you have not been very actively recently unless it is on threads I do not usually read, and virtually every post you have put up on this subject have been very disparaging about reporting to the police, whilst I an others have all had favourable responses.
We do not know what the police response will be unless we report an incident, but one sure thing I know, if we do not attempt to report it then nothing will ever be done and we just might be adding more information to a case that is already being investigated, as has happened to myself on occasion.

It is not very constructive to constantly tell people not to report an incident. It might be more helpful to say "you can try reporting it, but in my experience it has not been very helpful as they did not want to know". That way the poster is forewarned that they may not receive a favourable response and can at least make an informed choice on what they do with the info.

I'm afraid I can understand entirely Ivor Tingting's point in saying that reporting anti-cyclist behaviour is a waste of time.
It may not be entirely coincidental that we appear to live in the same area.
The local police farce are creatively incompetent when it comes to recording, investigating, and prosecuting crimes against cyclists.

Is this another example of a postcode lottery?

At last some one (Phil_Lee) who lives in the real world or just some one who lives in an area served by my police force.
eileithyia you obviously live in area such as Heartbeat where every single crime is pursued with vigour by the whole community and offenders are caught with the full force of the law and banged to rights. Unfortunately my experiences dealing with them (police) have been less than fruitful. These are my own experiences not anecdotes or speculation. You and your ilk rather than seeing this for what it is - police indifference or incompetence choose instead to make personal criticism of me. People do have experiences that differs from yours which you might not agree with but which are equally valid. Or would you prefer that people did not have the right to disagree with you, police state for instance? You seem to rate them so highly. Historically they have actually been quite good at quashing dissent or obscuring the truth where it is embarrassing to them or the government. Anyway I don't share your point of view, but I don't malign you. Of the cycling incidents you have reported to your constabulary how many have actually resulted in the perpetrators being apprehended and punished? Actual cases not anecdotal stories. I have reported numerous incidents over the years as I cycle about 10,000 miles a year commuting to and from work which doesn't include leisure cycling. On nearly every occasion I have provided vehicle registration, description of driver and any occupants, vehicle type and company names, pics, etc and yet the police have subsequently spectacularly failed to contact me in every instance. I doubt whether anyone has been apprehended let alone warned or punished. There comes a point when you have to take the view that local police are about as effective as chocolate tea pots in addressing these issues. I'm not stopping you reporting incidents that happen to you when cycling I am just saying IMHO it is a pretty pointless and fruitless exercise from my past experience. If the police were to take these cycling incidents seriously, then I might be of a mind to start reporting them but not until there is a sea change in police attitudes.

Anyway I find by regularly looking behind whilst cycling and eyeballing all approaching vehicles until they have safely passed is by far the most effective way to avoid an incident arising in the first place. So many cyclists just plod on (excuse the pun) without a single glance behind. It is no wonder they are targeted. One can do so much to protect oneself by reducing the likelihood of being targeted or becoming a statistic by thinking proactively and acting accordingly.

Ivor Tingting wrote:Anyway I find by regularly looking behind whilst cycling and eyeballing all approaching vehicles until they have safely passed is by far the most effective way to avoid an incident arising in the first place.

Your experience of 'numerous incidents' appears to suggest that this particular method, or at least its manner of execution is spectacularly ineffective. Perhaps all these assailants are percieving it to be some sort of a challenge Agreed, you do almost twice my annual mileage, but my commutes through the less salubrious parts of a depressed, northern city have been remarkably uneventful in comparison. Perhaps simply appearing confident rather than overtly aggressive is sufficient to minimise the risk of an incident.

As an aside, I think you have made clear your point that you believe the Police to be corrupt, brutal, lazy, indolent, incompetent, arrogant, chocolate teapots and slobs. Can it now be left at that, or is there more to come
The group of 'ilks' that I and eileithyia now seem to belong to might not agree with you (whether in whole or in part), but it does become rather tiresome to read over and over again and does little, or nothing, to add to the OP's original dilemma.

Steve

Ivor, I am not condemning your point of view, clearly you have your own issues with the police, the point I was trying to make is that they are not all bad and it is only if you attempt to report something do you know what sort of reception you will recieve, constantly advising against reporting will not get us anywhere.

As I said one incident was was not the first similar case reported and the police were very keen to apprehend the perps. On another I was physically assaulted in a dark land and the driver was brought in for questioning (in front of wife and family so had to face their wrath on his return home).
On another; the car had false number plates on, so police were very interested but is difficult to look for a beamer with false plates, they probably went home swapped them yet again...............

I too clock up nearly 10,000 miles a year, between commuting, "leisure" cycling, touring, audax, racing etc. and am a little puzzled why you think commuter miles are superior to any other sort. On a personal note I think you must have fantastic eyesight and much admire you, i could not supply the details you say you have got from passing cars (Reg Number, descriptions of passenger and driver etc), in order to supply the police with all those details. Personally my commuter route is much too busy to spend all my time looking behind and eyeballing every passing vehicle though I do try to ensure eye contact with anyone joining the route.

It also depends on the other calls on their attendance that the police have at that time. If I was a duty officer and had three reported fights breaking out in a town centre, some people frightening elderly residents and a case of someone slapping a cyclist, I'm afraid that I would decide to prioritise the other issues.

Over the past years I have had repeated thefts from my doorstep, a car in my front garden (which drove off after demolishing 10 feet of brick wall) and a burglary, all of which were unresolved....so I am not exactly a happy customer. This is on the mean streets of the New Forest.